Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, January 4, 2014 Read John 1:15-18 At verse 6 we noted how the narrative regarding John the Baptist is inserted into the poetic declaration of Jesus as the Word of God. Once again in verse 15 the poetry is interrupted by the narrator who again speaks of John the Baptist as the first witness to Jesus and once again Jesus is exalted and John the Baptist is lowered. With verse 16 we are back into the poetic presentation of the Word of God. And another witness of sorts is brought into play. Jesus is compared with Moses and in the comparison Jesus is exalted over Moses. There is no doubt that John understood Moses as the most important character in the OT. We will find this theme again and again as we proceed through the story. Here it is enough to point out the superiority of Jesus. And then John concludes with more bold proclamation, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart who has made him known.” Once again John proclaims clearly that Jesus is God the Son. As in verse 14 John’s claim is that in Jesus the very being of God is present and is made known. These first 18 verses of John’s gospel are often referred to as the Prologue to the gospel and in many ways they do stand apart from the rest of the story and function as an introduction to the whole gospel. We will not find anything quite like these verses again in John’s gospel. In a way they are preliminary to the main narrative. Readers of John’s gospel have long noticed that this Prologue can be separated into two parts – one part is poetic in nature and the other has the character of narrative. Some have theorized that the main part of this Prologue was a Christian hymn celebrating the Majestic Jesus. Verses 1-5, 9-14, and 16-18 make up the poetic hymn. When we read them and leave out the remaining verses they do carry a consistent theme. They appear to belong together. Those who hold to this theory see verses 6-8 and 15 as having been inserted into this poetic hymn. While it is impossible to say with certainty that this theory is true there are good reasons to accept it. Such an understanding would lead us to the conclusion that John found a powerful hymn celebrating the Majestic Jesus as the Word of God in the traditions that he received and placed it at the beginning of his gospel to paint the portrait of Jesus in the way John wanted to do. John also knew the traditional story of John the Baptist – a tradition he will now turn to in earnest – and has skillfully inserted just enough of that tradition regarding John the Baptist into the hymn to tie the two together. If we remove the poetic hymn and read only the narrative regarding John the Baptist (verses 6-8 and 15) and then continue with verse 19, we discover that John’s gospel then begins in much the same way that Mark began his gospel. Perhaps the earliest stories of Jesus began in this way – telling of John the Baptist as an introduction to Jesus. If that is the case, then John’s skill in adding the poetic Christ hymn to the story demonstrates his brilliant creativity. In any case John 1:1-18 are a crucial part of John’s gospel. They are John’s way of beginning his story and, as we have said before, beginnings are important. We are now ready to move through the rest of chapter 1.